 /*******************************************************************************
  * Copyright (c) 2000, 2006 IBM Corporation and others.
  * All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials
  * are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0
  * which accompanies this distribution, and is available at
  * http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
  *
  * Contributors:
  * IBM Corporation - initial API and implementation
  *******************************************************************************/

 package org.eclipse.ui.views.markers.internal;

 /**
  * The MarkerNode class is the class that handles category nodes and
  * concrete markers.
  *
  */
 public abstract class MarkerNode {

     /**
      * Get the children of the node.
      * @return MarkerNode[]
      */
     public abstract MarkerNode[] getChildren();

     /**
      * Return the parent node or <code>null</code> if this is a top
      * level element.
      * @return MarkerNode
      */
     public abstract MarkerNode getParent() ;

     /**
      * Return whether or not this is a concrete node
      * @return boolean
      */
     public abstract boolean isConcrete();

     /**
      * Return the description of the receiver.
      * @return String
      */
     public abstract String getDescription() ;

     /**
      * Get a concrete marker from the receiver. If the receiver
      * is concrete return the receiver otherwise return one of the
      * concrete markers it contains.
      * @return ConcreteMarker
      */
     public abstract ConcreteMarker getConcreteRepresentative();
     

 }

